Balzac and Catherine ... de'Medici, That Is
Balzac wrote a book on the history of Catherine de'Medici. And lucky us, it is translated into English, (whew, thank Buddha, because I don't think my Spanish-saturated mind is up to plowing through 19th century French), and even luckier us, it is available FREE, yes, my friends, FREE, simply for the downloading at Project Gutenberg. Here: view link
In his introduction, Balzac says:
for whoever studies modern history to its depths, it is plain that historians are privileged liars, who lend their pen to popular beliefs precisely as the newspapers of the day, or most of them, express the opinions of their readers.
Historians as 'Privileged liars'. Quite a condemnation, don't you think? But true?
Well, a great deal of the Introduction is dedicated to this type of rant, and I must admit I swear I have read it all before in the various rants and comments here on Eons. Ahhh, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, n'cest pas?
So, dear ones, who's up for reading this tome?
In his introduction, Balzac says:
for whoever studies modern history to its depths, it is plain that historians are privileged liars, who lend their pen to popular beliefs precisely as the newspapers of the day, or most of them, express the opinions of their readers.
Historians as 'Privileged liars'. Quite a condemnation, don't you think? But true?
Well, a great deal of the Introduction is dedicated to this type of rant, and I must admit I swear I have read it all before in the various rants and comments here on Eons. Ahhh, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, n'cest pas?
So, dear ones, who's up for reading this tome?
